Urban a loss to Territory
A LEADER and an icon within his community, Urban Costa helped build and look after the Tiwi Islands communities while immersing himself within life in Darwin and right across the Northern Territory.
Mr Costa lived through the Territory’s history as much as he was a part of it. He lived through Cyclone Tracy and helped the town rebuild. He spent his early years sailing in a dugout canoe in the Tiwi Islands.
He spent much of his time growing up at the Garden Point Mission, where he was put in the care of the Catholic Church at the age of just six or seven, and he played for two of the most famous football clubs, St Mary’s and the Imalu Tigers, and dabbled in boxing and cricket, showing his sporting prowess.
Mr Costa embraced the Territory lifestyle, hunting and camping with his mother and father before continuing the passion when he grew up and had a family of his own.
While never receiving a good education, Mr Costa learnt carpentry as a child. He struggled to obtain working tickets due to a lack of education but still made his way through, such was the camaraderie of the worksites. Those relationships would help him find further work with the Department of Lands and Survey.
His work would take him to Alice Springs where he began his own family.
Marrying Barbara Henderson, the couple had three children – Martin, Naomi and Lawrence – and while the marriage wouldn’t last, Mr Costa remained a devoted single father upon his return to the Top End.
He moved to Pirlangimpi on Tiwi Islands where he served as a groundsman and police tracker, before returning to the Department of Lands and Survey.
Mr Costa is survived by his four children Martin, Naomi, Lawrence and Darren, and his grandchildren and great-grand children, and will be fondly remembered for his generous and kind spirit and prominence across the community.